1. Field of the Invention
This invention pertains to animal husbandry generally, and more specifically to animal tethering systems and harnesses useful for skijor and other pulling applications, walking, vehicle restraint and other diverse applications.
2. Description of the Related Art
Skijor is a sport where a dog pulls a person on skis over the snow. Most commonly, the person will wear a skijor belt generally about their mid-section that is coupled through a lead to a pulling harness on the dog. Skijor provides excellent winter activity for a dog and person, and so has many participants. Competitions are regularly organized which permit many different dogs and skiers to compete on a trail.
A pulling harness is a leather, rope, webbing or other generally flaccid material configured to allow a dog to exert force through the neck and chest area to an attachment point or points at the rear of the harness. This allows the dog to pull light to heavy loads alone or in tandem with other dogs. The load may comprise a skier, as done in skijor competitions, or a sled or other object.
Many dog breeds are bred to pull, and many others can be taught to pull. Consequently, a suitable harness will require adaptation to a wide variety of dimensions and sizes of dogs. Furthermore, it is the object of a pulling harness to allow the dog to pull without injury or discomfort. Pulling harnesses must not injure the dog when pulling due to: choking at the base of the throat; pressure on shoulders joints; downward pressure on the spinal cord at the back of the neck; or downward or side pressure on the hips. In addition a pulling harness should not restrict the dog's chest expansion thus inhibiting his ability to breath.
There are a number of other additional features that have been generally overlooked heretofore in the sport of skijor that would be highly desirable. Among these are the harnessing of a dog for travel to and from a trail and then for skijor. This would heretofore have typically required separate harnesses with the resulting confusion over which harness to use for what application. In addition, the changing of the harnesses required additional time, adding to the overall burden serving to discourage a person and dog from actively participating.
Car harnesses share many requirements with pulling harnesses, but have additional desired features. Common requirements between car harnesses and pulling harnesses include not: causing choking at the base of the throat; applying pressure on shoulders joints, downward pressure on the spinal cord at the back of the neck, or downward or side pressure on the hips; or restricting the dog's chest expansion, thus inhibiting his ability to breath. Additional important features for a car harness include that a car harness restrain the dog even in a serious accident. The car harness must also accommodate movement such that the dog may sit, turn around, lie down, and stand while being restrained. The restraint cannot be too severe, or the dog will likely bite or chew the restraining device. A large dog is capable of generating over a ton of cutting pressure on his rear teeth, so it is not uncommon for a dog to bite through harnesses in a single bite. In addition, the car harness must restrain the dog irrespective of the direction the dog is facing at the time of an impact, and also irrespective of the direction of impact. Many prior art harnesses only protect the dog in the event the dog is facing forward and the crash is directly from the front. However, the dog is not always facing forward, and impacts are not always to the front of a vehicle. As a result, many car harnesses are not designed to restrain a dog in the event of an accident, but are instead designed to keep the dog from bothering the driver while traveling. Most such harnesses have not been tested to determine whether they would provide adequate protection to a dog, or withstand the forces applied in a vehicular accident. Finally, car harnesses will most desirably act as temporary walking harnesses, such that during travel the dog may be released from the vehicle and walked to permit the dog to move about and relieve itself, or for use traveling between a residence and vehicle.
In contrast to pulling and car harnesses, harnesses designed to walk a dog explicitly use choking or similar restrictive methods to stop the dog from pulling the dog walker as the dog is being walked. This is accomplished by designing the various straps of the harness such that when pressure is applied from the leash or tether, the harness will pull up under the throat, lifting and applying pressure to the dog's throat.
As may be appreciated, each of these harness types have been designed in the prior art with different constructions to accomplish some or many of the foregoing objectives or requirements. A number of patents found in the prior art illustrate harnesses, the teachings of each which are incorporated herein by reference. These include U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,101,979 by Wilson et al, entitled “Adjustable safety pet harness;” 1,800,421 by Wickersham et al, entitled “Adjustable dog harness;” 5,794,571 by Goldberg, entitled “Vehicular safety restraints for pets;” 4,597,359 by Moorman, entitled “Vehicle safety platform for pets;” 1,906,043 by Bernstein, entitled “Dog harness;” Des 424,761 by Mortenson, entitled “Dog leash;” 2,826,172 by Buckle et al, entitled “Animal actuated restraining dog harness;” 5,167,203 by Scott et al, entitled “Pet safety restraint;” Des 434,535 by Koch, entitled “Harness for dogs;” 1,614,083 by Plantico; 2,026,383 to Gyulay; 2,437,628 to Warren; 2,464,867 to Johnson; 2,555,027 to Clayton; 3,310,034 to Dishart; 3,948,222 by Longshore et al; 4,676,198 by Murray; 4,715,618 by Harris; 4,896,630 by Luce; 4,907,541 by Thompson; 4,970,991 by Luce; 5,035,203 by Cardenas; 5,154,660 by Snyder et al; 5,427,061 by McCullough; 5,443,037 by Saleme; 5,474,329 by Wade et al; 5,503,113 by Knight; 5,529,018 by Butts; 5,896,831 to Alpert; 5,913,285 by Pritchard; 5,915,335 by Holt; 5,937,794 to Hediger; 5,950,570 to Dickerson; and 6,164,245 by Johnson; 6,253,713 by Giedeman et al; 6,427,635 by Ballard; 6,543,390 by Lowery; 6,564,749 by Dorsey; 6,637,377, 2003/0150399, and 2003/0150400 by Lobanoff et al; 2004/0025804 by Smith et al; Des 310,435 by Cleveland; and Des. 313,677 to Hammon et al. Webster's New Universal Unabridged Dictionary, Second Edition copyright 1983, is additionally incorporated herein by reference in entirety for the definitions of words and terms used herein.
In spite of the many years and much development in this industry, there has not heretofore existed a single harness which could be used effectively for pulling, vehicle restraint, walking, and other diverse applications.